Iran sentences former vice president to 6 years in jail

TEHRAN, Sept. 12 (YPA) – An Iranian court has sentenced former vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, to six and a half years in jail, the official ISNA news agency reported Wednesday.

Mashaei was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for charges of acting against national security, running propaganda against the Islamic Republic regime and insulting the judicial authorities, Tehran Justice Department chief Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters.

On March 17, Mashaei, a close ally of ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was detained after he burnt a copy of a court verdict sentencing Hamid Baghaei, another Ahmadinejad ally, to 15 years for misuse of public funds when he was vice president.

Mashaei served as vice president in 2009, in the second term of the former president Ahmadinejad, and then stepped down at the request of Supreme Leader Khamenei.

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